Here’s a few ideas I have used for P.E. Each has a little Christmas spin. These will hopefully make your lessons a little more focussed and retain attention and engagement levels… and perhaps help the children to burn off some of that excited energy!
The lead up to Christmas in schools can be (a little!) chaotic! Routines are less… and the festive spirit is more. Throw P.E. into the mix of Advent Calendars, Christmas Nativities, Carol Services and Fundraisers and any teacher could have a ‘pulling out my hair’ moment, causing them to be more Grinch-like than Mr. or Mrs. Claus-like!
Fun warm-ups with Christmas movements and actions:
- Wrapping imaginary presents.
- Snow Angels (my class love this one!).
- Flying like Reindeer.
- Snowball Fight (I sometimes use this as a finisher with very soft balls/beanbags… only aim for the knee down, please!!!).
1. Snowball relay
This works as any other relay race but with a special Winter/Christmas twist.
For this one, you will need;
- some cones,
- a selection of different sized balls for each team, and
- some clear space.
Split the children into teams and give each team a pair of balls one small and one large. You could also use a range of sizes if you have them. Choose the sizes based on the motor skills in your class, small balls can be harder to roll.
The kids have to ‘roll their snowball’ from their cone to and around their other cone and back in order to “gain more snow“.
As the last child in every team has their turn, they switch from the smaller ball to a bigger ball (wow look at all the snow gathered!!). If you have balls of different sizes, the next largest could be rolled on each run.
First team back wins! You could give them ‘We’re finished’ actions such as ‘when all team members have ran, sit and warm your hands at the fire’ or ‘when all team members have completed, show me each member about to throw their snowball’, etc.
2. Santa’s parcel delivery race
This is a fun coordinated team relay race. You will need;
- hoops for ‘houses‘ and the ‘North Pole‘,
- beanbags (or similar) for ‘presents‘, and
- (optionally) a red nose for Rudolf.
Organise the teams into ‘Reindeer‘ teams with their ‘Santa‘. They form a line each with a hand on the shoulder of the child in front. Whoever is Rudolf could have a red nose!! ‘Santa‘ is ‘in the sleigh’ at the back and collects the presents.
Santa directs their team to their ‘North Pole‘ hoop so they can collect a present which they then must pop in their ‘home‘ hoop while moving as a team. They repeat until all their presents are delivered. When they get back to their ‘North Pole‘ they sit to take a well earned rest. The first team settled down after the deliveries is the winner.
For older children, you could have several hoops around the space representing different homes, the first team to deliver all their parcels to every house is the winner. They will need to think about the best route. If teams collide or become separated, they must sit down for few seconds until you let them go again.
3. Santa’s Elf Test
This is a nice, simple game to integrate with music, either sung by the class or played from a music player. You will need;
- some hoops.
- some bean bags (or similar) for presents.
Children sit back to back with a hoola hoop between them (one child at either side facing the opposite direction to each other). Place a cone, beanbag, small ball, etc. into the middle of each hoola hoop.
Play a song you’ve been learning in the class this month and have the children clap, stomp or click along to the beat.
Whilst the children keep in tune with the music, they listen for your whistle. The teacher blows the whistle once and the elves must spin around and grab the ‘present’ in the middle of the hoola hoop.
The elf to grab the present is the winner!
4. Don’t drop the baubles!
This one is perhaps more suitable to older classes due to the skills involved but could be simplified for younger classes. You will need;
- cones,
- bean bags or hoops (baubles).
Split your class into 4, 5 or 6 even groups (as close as possible with your class numbers). Station them around in a circle, each person standing by a cone and holding a piece of equipment they can safely throw up in the air.
On your whistle, the group move (run, jump, skip) from cone to cone. As they leave their cone they must throw their object up into the air and then move to the next cone to catch that person’s object. They repeat this until they make it back to their original spot.
The Christmas ‘Baubles’ must not hit the floor or else ‘the Christmas Spirit will disappear/Christmas will be ruined’, etc. You choose the tactic to best suit your own class! ‘Christmas will be ruined’ might not go down so well with Infants!!
This game requires lots of teamwork and coordination but when the teams have the sequence figured out and talk to each other to know when to move, it is great fun!
Differentiation ideas:
- To slow the pace down at the beginning, you could get each person to move on one space at a time. Once they make it to the next spot, they gather themselves and listen for your whistle again. Build it up to the teacher blowing the whistle once and the groups making their way around the circles themselves.
- If your class are struggling with balls or beanbags hitting the floor too quickly, you could get each person to hold a hoola hoop upright and move on to catch the next players hoola hoop to keep it upright. The winning group are the ones with no hoola hoops let down. Some of the kids in my classes in the past got very clever with the hoola hoop method. They would try and spin it as they left their spot to make it stand for a longer amount of time until the next person would get to it. They’ll amaze you with the hacks they’ll find!
So, hopefully one or some of these Christmas themed activities might be a hit with your class! Do let us know about your ideas in the comments.
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